Gangs of mums congregate around the Home and Away style coffee shop when they drop off or collect the kids from school but I’m not sure if I’ll make it into those circles – feeling a little shy (OK not very much but a little) and the kids play happily on the climbing frames (there are thousands around Melbourne which Harry delights in pointing out). We’re getting to know the other kids – but goodness knows how to get to meet their parents, I’ll have to see if I can start collecting pals when summer comes.
She’s missing all her friends but is quickly making new ones. Someone’s invited her over to play next week and she loves her sort-of cousin who’s the daughter of her real cousin’s girlfriend and who’s the same age as her.
Harry is turning into a real charmer – he’s settled in instantly to nursery where he goes once a week (when we’re permanent residents it’ll be much cheaper as we’ll get rebates so he may go a couple of days then). He’s got a new best friend from his gymnastics class and has been invited to her birthday party in September and yesterday he found another best friend at his swimming class (only 2 kids in the pool and it’s even a bit posh) – the boys tried playing chook on the road but thankfully lived to be marmalised by their mums.
From the comfort of our quarantine approved garden furniture (which arrived in Australia thanks to a wonderful gang of friends who cleaned and painted it to remove all traces of algae), we enjoy panoramic views over tree tops, with hares, ducks, spiders and other wildlife happily at home in the garden/nature reserve in which we live (oh, and our neighbours have a cow in their front garden)..
In our back yard we enjoy the company of two little ponies in a paddock – The other day the landlord phoned to ask if we minded them being there – I thought for a minute as I obviously had plans for jogging there and setting up a temporary football pitch but, hey, I’m a kind person and they are rather cute.
From the computer desk I can see our non rain-proof mail box on our gate half way down the driveway which must be nearly as long as Oxford Street, where the mail is dropped by a man on a motorbike… and sometimes we get to it while it’s still dry – Oh and there’s no post on Saturdays and they won’t deliver parcels to the house because they can’t be bothered to ride up the drive - it’s that far.
Some of the bushes are starting to blossom and the insects are trying once again to infiltrate our safety zone. The flies are definitely not what we’re accustomed to – they stay still long enough for you to check their pulse and don’t even fly off the first time you miss them with a newspaper – it takes a few minutes to be cruel enough to step on them but they let you and die quickly. I’m told they can sting? So I’m just waiting for one to get it’s own back.
Our neighbours are lovely – we’ve been over for drinks and the kids were so comfortable they fell asleep there (and the Boss was looking daggers at me telling me it was time to go home when usually it’s me trying to drag him home after a small excess of alcohol). They’ve told us about a vineyard that does reduced price wine (that’s been wrongly bottled) on a Friday morning at 7.30am for around $5 a bottle, 2/5 of the price in UK supermarkets. And…. these delightful people have offered our children the use of their pool in summer -and of course Harry couldn’t go in alone could he?
Village life is “kinda” strange with a community centre where they actually have welcome packs for newcomers (which are mainly full of leaflets about bush fires and whether you can have barbecues in high summer). People discuss their fire plans regularly – fight or flight are the options. I can assure you if there’s a fire near my property fighting won’t be my first choice.
In the village centre are about 20 eateries all BYO (bring your own booze) and shops like Scandles (for candles), a couple of ethnicy clothes shops (where I imagine sizes stop at 12), a village hall where Sandy’s judo classes are held and the post office where Alex is confident to go in alone and post stuff to England.
In the shops last week I asked for a recommendation on the dips – they gave me a small tub for free and every time we go to the deli in the supermarket they give Harry a free twiggy (unwrapped peperami) or spicy sausage to keep him quiet. It’s a tough place to live.
We went to have our medicals in Melbourne on Thursday – I drove in all by myself without directions which was pretty stupid. I eventually used my Melways (which is a fantastic type of A-Z for the whole of Melbourne and the outer suburbs which everyone directs you by) when I was nearly in the centre of town. It was surprisingly easy to find my way, I only cursed at my innocent children and fellow motorists for about 15 minutes in total and found a 2 hour parking space with ease.
Unfortunately I had to leave in the middle of the session while the rest of the family were trying to wee in cups to find a traffic warden (can’t remember what they call them here). She was a bit stunned when I greeted her enthusiastically (apparently they’re no more popular over here than in England) as I could then ask her if I had to move the car or just put more money in the meter. So for your information they put a chalk mark on your tyre to see if you’ve been back to it so you just have to move it a few inches to remove the chalk and put more money in the machine … so now you know but watch this space they’ll probably change it for the worst soon.
Anyway we’ve passed our medicals and our applications are on their way for our permanent visas.
Everything’s done on the internet here except shopping. Prices aren’t much cheaper than in the UK except for petrol and houses - maybe the rapid rise in petrol will minimise the rise in house prices till we can buy ours. Oh and petrol is at its cheapest on a Wednesday morning just before they have a price hike in the afternoon. Following that the price gradually decreases over the week. Can’t say we noticed it for ourselves, a local had to explain the practice (and yes the practice is currently under investigation).
We went to look at houses over the weekend out of curiosity – often they sound great with an acre, a pool, a studio apartment as well as the 4 bedroomed house, for little money. We were disappointed as the real gems are lots and lots of money and the others are either perched on cliff faces so you need crampons to pull your car up the drive or have rooms just big enough for a chair and bathrooms the equivalent of our avocado colour, and some of the tennis courts – well they’re looking a little shabby my dears. How will we cope?
You may have heard our big news from parliament – an act to ban porters and other riff-raff referring to politicians as “mate” was overturned recently because it was held to be un-Australian. There were debates in the paper by those who felt mateship is not a fit term for ladies but then the ladies told them to go away.
I must draw to a close before those of you reading this in the bath shrivel into prunes and those of you reading it in bed start to snore. … You really shouldn’t take the computer into the bath with you though!
Be good.
Carolyn, the Boss, Sandy and Harry xxxxx
